lionel N&W 611 6-8100

Is this motor a clone of the PW 726 motor? Are there bushings or bearings on the worm gear end of the armature shaft? Is the motor secured to the chassis with two screws? Could something be loose with the screws, or missing/worn with the bushings or bearings? Did the gears and axles get fresh oil/grease when you were servicing it? You mentioned it looks new, so maybe the grease is 35 years old too?

Those are very good engines. It sounds like dried grease to me. Open er up pop off the little silver cover and clean and replace the old grease.

Complete lube & oil(clean any old grease out). The side rods must be oiled on these models, too, as they transmit power to the drivers. Use synthetics if possible.

Your loco will take a while to break in if in fact it has not been run much.

As Jim indicated, these engines have a reputation as very good runners, so following Sam's and Rob's advice is certainly worthwhile.

Ok the first thing I done was put it on the stand, gave it a shake down. E-unit bad needed new drum. While I was inside I gave it a lube job inside and out. Part came in fixed e-unit, broke bottom finger on bottom board, need more parts. Fixed e-unit, again works but not like it should, it just doesn't sequence; the action isn't slick and smooth, but it works for now. Think I will change it to a Dallee later on. So test it on the stand runs well, it dose sound like a coffee grinder running, this leads me to thinking and from what I've read about some 4 drive wheeled steam engines, that it might need some shimming on the drive shaft. I'm going to pull it down off the track tomorrow and check it out.

I've rebuilt several 736/746 engines and there are some things you should take a look at. The 8100 is basically a remake of the 746 and is very similar to the Postwar version. The most common problem I've seen is excessive wear of the motor bushing on the commutator end of the armature, probably due to lack of lubrication considering the motor mounting orientation. This can cause poor gear mesh and may contribute to the famous Pullmor "growl". As previously mentioned, it is important to keep the side rods lubed as wear here will cause quartering issues and poor performance. I recently repaired a 746 where the shoulder of one of the drive axle bushings had disintegrated allowing the wheel to rub the cast frame.

I just purchased one of these at York, I did have a problem with the smoke unit lever, it needed adjusted, other than a clean up and regular lube, it runs like a top and now smokes like a dickens! hope you find your problem...